Snow or No, Skiers Prep for Races Ahead
December 26, 2015
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – With the sun shining, and the mercury inching into the 40s, Carlee McCardel was enjoying what felt like a spring day of skiing Dec. 20 on the two slopes that were open at Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville.
Except this was late December, just days before Christmas.
Above average temperatures, coupled with rain, put ski resort operators throughout the state in a bind as they tried to open their facilities before the holidays. A handful of resorts in the northern Lower Peninsula opened a limited number of slopes last week, although the weather continued to be a problem.
"I don't remember many Decembers where it's been this warm for this long and with so few opportunities to even make snow," said Ben Ferris, co-coach of the Traverse City St. Francis, Elk Rapids, Central Lake and Grand Traverse Academy co-op ski team.
That's why McCardel, a St. Francis senior and two-time MHSAA individual champion, was grateful just to be on snow, even though the slopes were surrounded by green grass.
Most teams had yet to conduct a practice on snow as of Tuesday. Traverse City West coach Ed Johnson was hoping to take his squad to Boyne Mountain on Wednesday, weather permitting.
Instead, skiers have had to embrace dryland training – weight lifting, running and plyometric exercises – to keep physically fit. Still, it does not replace practicing on a pair of skis.
"You can get all the conditioning you want," Johnson said, "but they're (skiers) not going to have the timing, and all the other skill development that they need to race and be productive and successful at it. We desperately need some snow time."
The first invitational of the season, the Harbor Springs-Petoskey Invitational, has already been canceled. It was scheduled for Jan. 6.
With snow not available, coaches are doing the next best thing – simulating.
The co-op team, which meets at Mt. Holiday, sprints down a slalom course on the hill, focusing on body posture, running the right line through the gates, and planting the outside foot correctly.
"We want them to envision what it's like once they get on the snow," Ferris said.
Now, some skiers have been on snow. Johnson, his son Austin and daughter Morgan led a group on a ski trip to Austria over Thanksgiving. The group included six skiers from West, plus a few from Traverse City Central.
McCardel and Central Lake's Ben Hicks, the defending Division 2 champion in the giant slalom, attended camps at Copper Mountain, Colo., during that same period.
Once the season starts, McCardel and Hicks will be two of the top skiers to watch. McCardel won the girls Division 2 giant slalom as a freshman and sophomore. She was edged by Houghton's Jenna Stein (53.04 to 53.31) last February.
"I couldn't have asked for a better high school career," the 18-year-old said. "I've achieved more than I ever wished I could. It's humbled me."
McCardel said she was not too upset placing second to Stein last season because she felt she gave it her best.
"I left it all on the hill," she said. "I was happy with how I skied. Jenna happened to ski faster that day. I was happy for her."
To prep for this season, McCardel has spent considerable time in the gym.
"She's put in a lot of time in the offseason, working on her leg strength, her core strength, to make sure her body is ready," Ferris said.
She's also been watching World Cup ski action on TV to visually "get into it."
The girls co-op team finished third at the MHSAA Final last season and returns the nucleus of that squad with McCardel and Sarah Trilla at the top of the lineup.
"We only lost one girl (to graduation) and we gained a fast freshman (Claire Kalajian)," Ferris said.
Hicks headlines the boys team. He's coming off an impressive football season, capturing first-team all-Ski Valley honors on both sides of the ball, even though he suffered a groin injury the first game of the year.
"Every week I would take it light in practice, not run that hard, and then play Friday," he said.
He still finished with 1,088 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns. He also had nearly 400 yards receiving with three touchdowns and returned a kick for another score.
"He's just now getting back to 100 percent," Ferris said. "That kid is so focused. He's such a good athlete and he's so coachable. He works hard all the time."
Hicks, who turns 18 next month, said he feels fine now.
"I’ve had a long opportunity to test it, ice it and gently stretch it," he said. "It feels almost back to normal."
Hicks edged his friend, Petoskey's Mitch Makela, to win the giant slalom a year ago (52.30 to 52.52). Makela also attended the camp at Copper Mountain over Thanksgiving.
The giant slalom is Hicks’ favorite discipline.
"It's a lot more technical," he said. "And I've always been better at it."
Meanwhile, Johnson expects to have another strong girls team at West. The Titans are the defending Division 1 champions. West lost Morgan Culp to graduation, but returns plenty of experience with Kitt Hornbogen and Claire Podges leading the way.
Now all that’s needed is snow.
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: Skiers, including Central Lake's Ben Hicks (125), compete during last season's Division 2 Finals at Nub's Nob.
TC West Girls Repeat, FHNE's Grzelak Adds Sweep to Family's Success
By
James Cook
Special for MHSAA.com
February 26, 2024
HARBOR SPRINGS – A Grzelak state champion seems to be the norm.
Katie Grzelak became the latest in the family to etch her name into the Michigan record books, becoming the third to claim an MHSAA Ski Finals championship over the last five years.
Her older sister Holly won the 2021 Division 1 slalom title also for Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern, while cousin Anna (who skied for Marquette) shared the slalom title with Traverse City Central’s Quinn Gerber a season ago.
Katie one-upped them both, sweeping the slalom and giant slalom titles this time around at Boyne Highlands.
“It’s a family tradition,” Katie Grzelak said. “I've been working towards it for a while now. It just felt good to finally put it together.”
Last year, she took second behind Rochester Adams’ Katie Fodale in GS and third in slalom. She’s been all-state six times in three seasons.
“It pretty cool,” said Marquette junior Sam Dehlin, a former teammate of Anna Grzelak who won the 2024 boys slalom title. “They really have a good thing going with the Grzelaks.”
Katie Grzelak said she was already receiving texts from relatives from all over asking if she extended the family tradition.
“I wasn't really expecting it, but I was really happy in the end,” she said. “I probably could have gone harder. I was happy with it, so I didn't feel the need to put too much down.”
Traverse City West's girls repeated as team champion, going back-to-back for the first time since the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. TC West's girls also won the state's top spot in the academic all-state awards, with a team grade-point average of 3.886.
West junior Olivia Bageris came out of the fourth flight to place second in both the slalom and giant slalom.
The five-time all-stater leads a Titans team that's aiming to extend its Finals championship streak at least another year, despite losing three of its top six skiers after this one.
"The goal is obviously to make it a three-peat," Bageris said. "Central, our best friends but our biggest rivals. It always comes down to the day of the race. Conference races are always different than the state meet, but the goal would be to make it a three-peat."
West also gets freshman Sarah Shapiro back from injury next season.
"It means a lot," Bageris said. "It hasn't happened in a while. The boys have done it, and we've kind of always been like the underdogs and overlooked compared to our boys. They had a great day, too. So that was exciting. But it means a lot to be able to do this two years in a row. Our freshman year, we come in runner-up and it was exciting because we were kind of unexpected to get that high up. But in the end, we really all wanted to win."
The Titans led by a single point (19-20) after the morning giant slalom session, but felt confident because the team's strength all season has been slalom. West outpointed Central 19-32 in slalom.
"We were only ahead by one point, so we knew we had to go for it," Bageris said. "My friend Ellie (Gruber), she had a really great day, came out skied really amazing. She definitely helped. It was a team sport today."
Gruber took seventh in GS, with Lila Warren 10th. Erinn Hale, Kellan Kudary and Quinn Gerber took eighth, fifth and fourth for Central.
West won the girls title with 38 points, compared to Central's runner-up total of 52. The rest of the field consisted of Clarkston (110), Marquette (158.5), Birmingham United (203), Milford (231), West Bloomfield (243), Brighton (242.5) and White Lake Lakeland (290).
Bageris was joined by Titans teammates Gruber (seventh), Dillyn Mohr (eighth) and Warren (ninth) in the slalom top 10, with Central represented by Gerber (third) and Cady Madion (10th), with Hale just behind in 11th.
West head coach Ed Johnson said he thinks the Titans can seriously make a run at three in a row next season.
"I think we can," Johnson said. "We're losing a couple, but we'll be back pretty strong."
Gerber took third in giant slalom and fourth in slalom to earn her third and fourth all-state spots in two seasons on varsity.
"West has a really good team, and we definitely wanted to show that we could compete," Gerber said. "We scared them a little bit, but they ended up with it."
Central brings back its entire varsity team next season and has several talented middle schoolers coming up as well.
"We want to get it, so we'll be working all offseason," Gerber said.
Traverse City as a whole was the day's big winner.
The Trojans and Titans took first and second in both boys and girls. Traverse City accomplished the same feat last year, although West won two championships and Central took runner-up honors in both.
"It's good for Traverse City to bring that clean sweep again," TC West head coach Ed Johnson said. "That's one of the things I'm most excited about is to see that clean sweep for Traverse City. One-two for the boys, one-two for the girls. It goes from one side of town to the other, but it's all good."
Traverse City Central and West have combined to win the last four Division 1 titles in both boys and girls.
Twenty-three of the 40 first-team all-state spots went to skiers from Traverse City, with another 17 on the second team.
Only four spots in the slalom top-10 didn’t go to Central or West. After Grzelak, Grand Haven’s Neave Rewa was fourth, Birmingham’s Blanca Srock fifth and Clarkston’s Cameron Thomas sixth.
The same applied to GS, where Holly’s Finley DeCubber placed third, Berkley’s Tessa Rontal was sixth and Rewa placed ninth.
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern's Katie Grzelak skis a championship run Monday at Boyne Highlands. (Middle) Traverse City Central's Olivia Bageris completes a run for the eventual team champion. (Photos by Tori Burley. Click for more; photos will be added throughout this week.)